Knowledge that Transforms

AbstractWork in the gig economy is championed by platform organizations as affording individuals the flexibility to decide when, where, and how much they wish to work. The reality is more complex. In app‐based gig work, we propose the concept of “algorithmic HRM control,” which acts as an omnipresent and distinctive control system that differs from traditional forms of control in two significant ways: first, the reliance upon, and pervasiveness of, algorithmic technologies in its enactment; and second, the substantial direct and indirect influence of non‐organizational parties in controlling workers. Through a qualitative research design, this article delineates the scope of algorithmic HRM control in allocating and coordinating tasks, managing performance and rewards, and aligning the actions of workers with organizational objectives. Our analysis also unpacks the rigidity and complexities of the control system, as experienced by workers, and the influential role of non‐organizational parties in exerting unique, distinct forms of control. In so doing, we build upon emerging research on the duality of algorithmic HRM by revealing the inherent flaws or challenges from the perspective of the most central party—the gig worker. While output‐oriented control is pervasive, process and normative control elements are also found to exist in some scenarios, creating significant concerns for workers.

AbstractArtificial intelligence (AI) has become an important topic in business literature and strategy talk. Yet, much of this literature is normative and conceptual in nature. How organizational members perceive AI and the job role changes that come with it is, so far, largely unknown territory for both HR scholars and practitioners. We sought to investigate the relationship between humans and AI and conducted an in‐depth exploratory study into the co‐existence of humans and two early‐stage AI‐solutions, one for “low‐status” automation and another for “high‐status”; augmentation. We suggest that different organizational groups may engage in distinctly different sensemaking processes regarding AI, an important insight for successful HRM strategies when AI is being introduced into the workplace. Moreover, contrary to recent conceptual work, our findings indicate that AI‐enabled automation and augmentation solutions may not be detached from nor exist in tension with each other. They are deeply embedded in organizational processes and workflows for which people who co‐exist with the technologies must take ownership. Our findings, in part, go against discussions on AI “taking over” jobs or deskilling humans. We describe a more nuanced version of reality fluctuating around the various ways different organizational groups encounter different AI‐solutions in their daily work. Finally, our study warns against unconditional technological enthusiasm, managerial ignorance of the nature of work that employees undertake in different organizational groups, and a neglect of the time and effort required to successfully implement AI‐solutions that affect not only the home organization but also members of the broader ecosystem.

AbstractIntegrating the literatures on strategic human resource management and organizational support theory, we examine the cross‐level relationship between high performance work systems (HPWS) at the team‐level and individual perceptions of organizational support (i.e., POS). In addition, we introduce a critical boundary condition, the HR department's organizational embodiment (HROE), which involves the extent to which employees identify the HR department with the organization. We propose that the cross‐level HPWS–POS relationship is moderated by HROE, such that the linkage between HPWS and POS is stronger when HROE is high. With a sample of 103 teams and 399 employees in South Korea, we find that HPWS utilization increases POS and that this relationship is stronger when HROE is high. We also find that HR department status and the favorable attitude of the HR head are antecedents to HROE. These findings suggest that HROE is a critical boundary condition for the relationship between HPWS and POS with subsequent effects on organizational commitment and job satisfaction.

AbstractExtant literature has generated limited understanding of whether and how sustainable human resource management (HRM) will lead to better and more sustainable outcomes, such as enhanced employee well‐being and improved employee performance. Moving toward common good values and drawing on the job demands‐resources model, this study theorizes and tests the relationships among sustainable HRM practices, employee resilience, work engagement, and employee performance. The empirical results of a multilevel and multisource study in the Chinese context provide supporting evidence for our theoretical model. The findings demonstrate that sustainable HRM practices positively affect employee resilience, and lead to a high level of work engagement among employees. Employee resilience also has an indirect effect on employee performance through work engagement. This study, with its theoretical and practical implications, reveals a serial mediation mechanism through which sustainable HRM practices contribute to both employee well‐being and employee performance.

AbstractEmployee mental health is a central issue in today's global workplace. This paper analyzes the effect of high performance work systems (HPWSs) on employee mental health. We integrate HPWS concepts with job demands‐resources (JD‐R) theory to examine competing theoretical perspectives—a positive HPWS influence and a negative HPWS influence on employee mental health. We examine employees' perceptions of psychological empowerment as an indicator of the motivational pathway of the JD‐R and work‐role overload as an indicator of the strain pathway to explain the differential effect of HPWSs on mental health. We also incorporate organizational identification theory to demonstrate how one's identification with the organization can either accentuate or attenuate feelings of both psychological empowerment and work‐role overload. Findings from a study of 999 employees in 174 South Korean organizations indicate that HPWSs are positively associated with employee mental health via employee perceptions of empowerment and that HPWSs are negatively associated with employee mental health through perceptions of work‐role overload. Furthermore, the study finds that organizational identification attenuates the relationship between HPWS and both empowerment and overload. Practice‐level post hoc analyses also reveal that the job design characteristics, pay level, and participative decision‐making are linked to empowerment. In addition, participative decision‐making is most strongly associated with work overload.

AbstractGiven the widespread contribution of independent contractors to organizational innovation and competitive advantage, it is timely to reassess assumptions about the HRM practices appropriate to their management and the rationale for organizations to work with them. In the original and highly influential HR architecture model of Lepak and Snell (1999), contractor status is viewed as an outcome of the low value and/or low uniqueness of human capital resulting in the proposition to externalize and manage them using either none or minimal compliance‐based HRM practices. Developments in digital technologies and algorithmic management epitomized by online labor platforms prompt us to reconsider these assumptions and to challenge the proposed links between value/uniqueness of human capital, employment mode and HRM practices that are assumed by the HR architecture model. Using insights from online labor platforms, we argue that the significant benefits to firms of working with contractors, coupled with the possibilities offered by algorithmic management to efficiently monitor and regulate their behavior, provide a compelling reason for organizations to choose external employment modes even when workers are key to value creation. We challenge the alignment and stability of the relationships proposed by the HR architecture model, and offer propositions to extend the model by reconsidering the rationale for, and nature of, HRM practices associated with contractors. This reassessment is both timely and relevant given the growing prominence of business models where externalizing workers is central alongside the development of new forms of algorithmic human resource management to control them.

AbstractHuman resource (HR) practices are potent in shaping workplace social relationships, which play a crucial role in employees' well‐being. While the role of formal relationships (i.e., relationships based on prescribed work roles) has received relatively more research attention, little is known about the nexus between HR practices, informal relationships at work and employee well‐being. Drawing on social interdependence theory, we conducted two studies to investigate how high commitment work systems (HCWS) affect employee well‐being through workplace friendship, beyond the effects of formal interpersonal relationships. In Study 1, using time‐lagged data from a sample of 253 full‐time employees, we found that workplace friendship, a type of informal relationship at work, mediated the relationship between HCWS and employee well‐being. In addition, task interdependence strengthened the relationship between HCWS and workplace friendship as well as the indirect effect of HCWS on employee well‐being. In Study 2, we replicated these findings and extended them to multiple forms of well‐being using multilevel data collected at three time points from 310 employees in 61 organizations. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings as well as future research directions are discussed.

ABSTRACTDrawing upon the resource‐based view and economic cost perspective, we examined the effect of firms' use of high‐performance work systems (HPWS) on two firm performance outcomes—firm financial performance (FFP) and firm innovation and improvement (FII), indirectly through firm capacity for learning and transforming external knowledge and technologies (CLT). Our results confirmed that HPWS positively related to both FFP and FII through firm CLT. HPWS was found to have a linear association with CLT but an inverted U‐shape relationship with FFP. We also revealed a three‐factor structure of firm HPWS: motivation to perform, skills to enhance, and opportunity to engage. The supplementary analysis demonstrated a lack of significant three‐way interaction between these three HPWS factors. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

AbstractThe topic of green human resource management (HRM) has drawn increasing attention of HRM scholars in the past decade. Recent research has called for more studies to identify the antecedents of green HRM used in organizations and explore the mediating mechanisms through which green HRM is related to performance outcomes. This study represents an effort to address these research needs by examining the joint effects of chief executive officer (CEO) environmental belief and external pollution severity on the use of green HRM and testing the mediating role of employee environmental commitment in the relationship between green HRM and firm performance. Drawing upon data collected from multiple sources (i.e., survey data from chief executive officer (CEOs), chief financial officers (CFOs), HR managers and employees, and archival data from government statistics), we found that CEO's environmental belief is significantly related to the use of green HRM, especially for companies operating in locations with severer pollution. Green HRM in turn has a positive relationship with the firm's environmental and financial performances via employee commitment to the environment. The findings highlight the often‐overlooked role of in the strategic HRM literature pertinent to environmental management and clarify the antecedents and influential mechanisms of green HRM at the firm level of analysis. We also discuss theoretical and practical implications in this study.

AbstractIntegrating conservation of resource (COR) theory and the theory of relational organizing, we conceptualize expatriate–host country national (HCN) knowledge transfer as resource gains between the sender and receiver. Based on a sample of 107 expatriate–HCN dyads, we found that when the knowledge receiver, be it an expatriate or HCN, is high on cultural intelligence (CQ), the sender will be more likely to perceive higher levels of trust in the receiver and shared vision with the receiver. These cognitive responses to the receiver's CQ are instrumental in facilitating the receiver's knowledge acquisition. We also identified the sender's perceptions of the collaborative‐based HR configuration as a contextual condition that strengthens the relationship between the knowledge receiver's CQ and the sender's perceived trust in the receiver and shared vision with the receiver.